I mostly buy books from Dynamite and IDW and have to deal with the multitude of variant covers. This is especially bad because I am a stickler for accuracy. While rotating books into my collection, I have come across instances where the letter designated to a particular cover is wrong in the database. For instance, The Shadow #7 has the Darwyn Cooke "B" cover listed as "C" and the John Cassaday "C" cover listed as "B". When I tried to correct this, the change would not save bacause the number/letter is already assigned. What, then, is the proccess for correcting these types if errors?

We don't necessarily follow the same variant cover ordering as publisher websites. The standard cover will always be "A", and the order of the other variants falls arbitrarily on what order they are added to the CCL database.

If the publisher gives an order for the covers, we do try to follow it as best we can, but we don't always order covers the same way. As Pat said, if you find one that's out of order, please contact one of the Approvers and we can shift the cover order.

PS, I have corrected the Shadow covers you mentioned in your first post.

“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ~ Bryant H. McGill

It's not a matter of slavishly copying the information that a publisher website carries. If we did that with with their inconsistent cover description captions, it would really contradict our long established standard approved terminology.

comicscastle wrote:

Are the books designated by a letter on the cover or inside the book? If so send me the information and I can switch them around. It's a pain in the ass, but it can be done.

If the publisher gives an order for the covers, we do try to follow it as best we can, but we don't always order covers the same way.

To add to this point - publishers (especially Dynamite) don't provide any kind of cover order on their site. Nor do they provide any indication on the front cover what order they have them in (again, Dynamite is horrible at this). Last, the approver who is adding the covers may not have the issue in hand to look at the cover listing that typically appears on the inside back cover of Dynamite issues. That means they get entered with a best guess at the order.

Yes, we do our best to enter the covers in the order the publisher specifies but without having accurate info in front of us we are not always accurate.

And as Comicscastle said, it is a bit of a pain to do them if you are a member. It's still a bit of a pain for an approver, but we can move them around if necessary. Just let one of us know what the proper order is and we'll get it taken care of.

Wow, what a bunch of pathetic slackers with no sense of integrity you lot are. It is obvious that none of you care about the accuracy of this website. If I pay money for this site, I expect the information provided to be as correct as possible and, if a mistake is discovered, there should be a means to correct it. To say it is "slavish" to be accurate is an excuse for sloppiness and laziness. If you don't have the book, THEN DON'T APPROVE IT! Let someone who has the brains, or at least the integrity, to make sure it is correct do it. If a publisher says a cover is the "A" cover, it IS the "A" cover, not whatever cover some slackass says it is.

Wow, what a bunch of pathetic slackers with no sense of integrity you lot are. It is obvious that none of you care about the accuracy of this website. If I pay money for this site, I expect the information provided to be as correct as possible and, if a mistake is discovered, there should be a means to correct it. To say it is "slavish" to be accurate is an excuse for sloppiness and laziness. If you don't have the book, THEN DON'T APPROVE IT! Let someone who has the brains, or at least the integrity, to make sure it is correct do it. If a publisher says a cover is the "A" cover, it IS the "A" cover, not whatever cover some slackass says it is.

Doesn't take much brains to figure it out.

That's fine. Next time all those "The Shadow" issues will sit in the queue for months because no one reads that crap.

Guess all the offers of fixing them to the correct order went right over your head. There is a way to fix the order, but it involves moving all of the issues around which regular members can't really do. And, again, since Dynamite DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY LIST on their website NOR DO THEY ACTUALLY LABEL THE COVERS on the cover, it is difficult to know what order they've put them in. No one is being a "slackass".

CCL has NEVER sworn to uphold the order that the publishers list their covers in - we do TRY to follow them when the information is readily available. Aspen and IDW label their covers right on the front with an identifying letter. DYNAMITE DOES NOT. Deal with it.

Wow, what a bunch of pathetic slackers with no sense of integrity you lot are. It is obvious that none of you care about the accuracy of this website. If I pay money for this site, I expect the information provided to be as correct as possible and, if a mistake is discovered, there should be a means to correct it. To say it is "slavish" to be accurate is an excuse for sloppiness and laziness. If you don't have the book, THEN DON'T APPROVE IT! Let someone who has the brains, or at least the integrity, to make sure it is correct do it. If a publisher says a cover is the "A" cover, it IS the "A" cover, not whatever cover some slackass says it is.

Wow, what a bunch of pathetic slackers with no sense of integrity you lot are. It is obvious that none of you care about the accuracy of this website. If I pay money for this site, I expect the information provided to be as correct as possible and, if a mistake is discovered, there should be a means to correct it. To say it is "slavish" to be accurate is an excuse for sloppiness and laziness. If you don't have the book, THEN DON'T APPROVE IT! Let someone who has the brains, or at least the integrity, to make sure it is correct do it. If a publisher says a cover is the "A" cover, it IS the "A" cover, not whatever cover some slackass says it is.

Doesn't take much brains to figure it out.

That's fine. Next time all those "The Shadow" issues will sit in the queue for months because no one reads that crap.

Guess all the offers of fixing them to the correct order went right over your head. There is a way to fix the order, but it involves moving all of the issues around which regular members can't really do. And, again, since Dynamite DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY LIST on their website NOR DO THEY ACTUALLY LABEL THE COVERS on the cover, it is difficult to know what order they've put them in. No one is being a "slackass".

CCL has NEVER sworn to uphold the order that the publishers list their covers in - we do TRY to follow them when the information is readily available. Aspen and IDW label their covers right on the front with an identifying letter. DYNAMITE DOES NOT. Deal with it.

For that matter, most everything published by Dynamite will sit in the queue. I honestly don't know anybody that reads anything they put out ... although they might buy them for the Red Sonja covers...

Complaining about the people who approve the books, and who do actually take great pains to make the DB as accurate as possible, and ignoring several offers to fix out-of-order books, really isn't the best way to get things ordered. Might want to re-think that strategy.

Coming into this late I have three observations (other than the unnecessary name calling which will likely get this thread locked down shortly).

a) A completely valid complaint/request was dismissed.

b) Inaccurate information was initially given.

c) Accurate information and offers to correct were ignored.

a & b) CCL absolutely will reorder books to match publishers who clearly label their variants.

c) 1 - Dynamite does not clearly label their variants. They have them on the inside back cover. So, when CCL adds issues and most variants the week or so BEFORE the actual variants come out, it's impossible to know what the order is and when they are added after-the-fact by members, they never mention the order, so books end up in the order submitted.

2 - Dyanmite has an incredibly small readership (even though they seem to be able to sustain four titles per property). Their best book in December was Masks #2 at 114 on the Top 300 with less than 17,000 shipped per icv2. Next best, Vampirella Strikes #1 at 140 with less than 15,000 shipped (yeesh). But most of their titles only ship 5,000-6,000 copies. The issue in question, Shadow #7 was 146 on the November Top 300 with an estimated 14,884 sold. That's simply not a lot and, frankly, this site doesn't have a membership that reads much non-Diamond exclusive publishers.

I'm new here and have just started to make change requests and contribute to the database and must chime in here. I'm kind of appalled at how Flagwaver was basically dismissed by a few of the approvers. Whether or not you read Dynamite comics, regardless of if Dynamite has huge print runs or not, the correct information should be adopted into the database when it becomes available and approvals shouldn't be based on whether or not an approver likes or even reads a particular title. Why not strive to make the database accurate and complete? And to criticize his choices of what he reads and threaten him with keeping his change requests in limbo or ignoring them totally doesn't sit well with me, especially when he is a paying member.

I am not a paying member yet and am thinking about becoming one. After reading this thread I'm reconsidering. It doesn't make sense to me that someone who has something to contribute to the database is shot down so quickly. So what if Flagwaver is one of the few who reads a certain title or titles? With such low readership of Dynamite titles, it seems that he is the perfect person to contribute because he is one of those few and knows more about the titles than the approvers and actually has the books and information in hand. I would hope that an approver's personal preferences don't get in the way of getting accurate information into the database.

Thanks for joining the discussion. I appreciate your comments and perspective. When I first joined CCL years ago, it was this very issue that that convinced me to be part of the community - one of the Approvers was willing to rearrange variant titles when I found them out of order.

As you can see from several responses to the original post, there are Approvers who are willing to do just that. In fact, I actually did rearrange the order of the variants mentioned and remain willing to do so for Flagwaver or any other member who brings errors to our awareness.

Rest assured that the Approvers do indeed care about the accuracy of the database. We volunteer literally hundreds of hours (none of us are paid by CCL) to get issues and information into the database. I myself usually enter all the new Dynamite titles into the database each week even though I only read a few of their titles. I try my best to get them added correctly, but for reasons mentioned by SwiftMann the cover orders aren't always correct. When someone points an incorrect one out, I am always happy to fix them.

Are some of the responses to Flagwaver in this thread dismissive? Probably, yes. Please allow those not to be entirely representative of CCL, its Approvers, and membership as a whole. Being referred to as "pathetic slackers with no sense of integrity" when the offer to help has been extended sometimes tends to bring out the worst in a person. My sincere hope is that you, Flagwaver, and every other user feels that they're able to come to the Approvers for help and with questions and receive a fair hearing. When that doesn't happen, all I can do is ask for forgiveness and hope that people will remember that we are only human and sometimes make mistakes.

“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ~ Bryant H. McGill

I'm new here and have just started to make change requests and contribute to the database and must chime in here. I'm kind of appalled at how Flagwaver was basically dismissed by a few of the approvers. Whether or not you read Dynamite comics, regardless of if Dynamite has huge print runs or not, the correct information should be adopted into the database when it becomes available and approvals shouldn't be based on whether or not an approver likes or even reads a particular title. Why not strive to make the database accurate and complete? And to criticize his choices of what he reads and threaten him with keeping his change requests in limbo or ignoring them totally doesn't sit well with me, especially when he is a paying member.

I am not a paying member yet and am thinking about becoming one. After reading this thread I'm reconsidering. It doesn't make sense to me that someone who has something to contribute to the database is shot down so quickly. So what if Flagwaver is one of the few who reads a certain title or titles? With such low readership of Dynamite titles, it seems that he is the perfect person to contribute because he is one of those few and knows more about the titles than the approvers and actually has the books and information in hand. I would hope that an approver's personal preferences don't get in the way of getting accurate information into the database.

I have no clue which thread you read but the one I read clearly shows FlagWaver as an arrogant pompuos better then you something or another.

1. Flagwaver asked a question.2. icarus201 replied with how issues are added to the database.3. Flagwaver then made a snide remark4. Then 3 approvers offers to fix, and one did5. FlagWaver then responded again in his arrogant pompus attitude and called everyone "pathetic slackers" and "Slackass"

It is only then that people came back with other nasty replies.And somehow how you get upset over that?

We volunteer literally hundreds of hours (none of us are paid by CCL) to get issues and information into the database

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you guys get free software subscriptions for your time? So in a way you are getting paid for your time.

I'm a store owner so I get my subscription that way. I get nothing else from CCL. Even if I did a $30 subscription per year for what we do isn't payment any more than the $5 tip you give the mail man at Christmas is.

We volunteer literally hundreds of hours (none of us are paid by CCL) to get issues and information into the database

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you guys get free software subscriptions for your time? So in a way you are getting paid for your time.

Heh, cheapo overseas factories pay more per hour than that works out to be! I surely don't do it for $30 a year. I spend the approx. 20+ hours a week working on CCL because I enjoy it and want to help make the largest, most accurate comic and collectible database that exists.

And yes, I get po'd when offers of assistance get met with "you're a slacker" and general disrespect.

We volunteer literally hundreds of hours (none of us are paid by CCL) to get issues and information into the database

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you guys get free software subscriptions for your time? So in a way you are getting paid for your time.

Ha ha. You got me there. I forgot about it to be honest, but yes, those Approvers who are subscribers to the software do get access for free. So I am getting paid $0.58 per week to do what I do here. Good catch.

“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” ~ Bryant H. McGill

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